A short drive from my house lies 2 significant features. Signal Hill, the highest point in the city, looks far out over the North Atlantic. It was from here that Marconi received the first wireless trans-Atlantic cable. The other location is Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land in North America. One thing is for sure, if Newfoundland is not the edge of the world, you can see it from here.

24 March 2012

For their own good.

Whatever happened to pro bono publico? The idea that lawyers
would do work to help the public in order to ensure equality before the law and
to help individuals who could not afford to pay them? Where did that concept
go?

Last August, the GG
said law firms in Canada donate less than 3% of their time to this fundamental
legal ideal. 3%? You could have knocked me over with a feather. Because, as
near as I can tell, that might be a couple of firms using ALL of their time,
while the rest don't do any pro bono work.

Because I've been
pitching a simple case for a veteran who was mistreated. There is nothing
complex or convoluted and it should be able to be resolved with a few letters
written. I've approached dozens of lawyers and SIX pro bono societies. Response
rate? 1. Not 1%, 1 response. And repeated querying of the societies supposedly
dedicated to doing this work has not resulted in a single word. In my
experience, the GG's estimate is grossly overinflated.

Which leads me to
suspect that every negative thing said about lawyers may be true. Because if
not one will step up to help an impoverished veteran, then the profession
really believes pro bono pocketo.

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About Me

Jeff Rose-Martland is an award-winning authorand playwright living in St. John's, Newfoundland. He finds time to write in between raising his son, running a household, and infrequent stints in various bill-paying careers.-----------------------------------------------------------------------Shortlisted for the 2010 CBC Literary Awards.